Ordinary Days
by CUtopia
Summary: Valentine's Day is approaching, and Olivia wonders if Rafael cares about the holiday at all - Barson family featuring some Olivia/Amanda friendship fluff.


Entry for the _Valentine's Day Barson Fic-A-Thon_ by thebarsondaily on Tumblr

Naughty and Nice – **Prompts:** masturbate (naughty) & chocolate (nice)

Well, I was planning to do something smutty, but somehow this idea took over, and I'm warning you beforehand, it has no direction whatsoever XD

I hope you guys still like it, I'm looking forward to your feedback!

* * *

 **Ordinary Days**

"Okay, you two, now it's really time for bed, though! Put the legos down or we'll arrest you!" Amanda exclaimed, placing her hands on her hips as she looked down at Jesse and Noah, the two pyjama-clad children immediately pouting and begging for five more minutes like champions.

"Our castle is almost done!"

"Mummy, please!"

Olivia chuckled in the kitchen, drying the dishes from dinner, and said: "You two have the whole weekend to build your lego world. If you don't go to bed now you'll be too tired to play tomorrow. But if you go now I might make pancakes for breakfast."

She winked at the two, knowing fully well that her argument would work, and Noah and Jesse glanced at each other quickly before Noah piped up: "But we get two goodnight stories now!"

The two women exchanged annoyed and knowing glances and Amanda sighed while nodding with a shrug; they both knew from experience that this could take another hour if she argued back. Cutting a deal was the best and quickest option now. "Fine. But you two get into bed now. Otherwise there won't be a story."

Jesse and Noah abandoned their toys with notable reluctance, their stances entirely lacking enthusiasm when they walked to Noah's room, saying goodnight to Olivia. Amanda followed them a moment later, but only after having grumbled something like "That boy spends way too much time with Barba" towards Olivia under her breath.

While Amanda read the two goodnight stories to the kids, Olivia finished the dishes and then poured Amanda and her some wine, settling on the couch. These sleepover evenings, even though they were hard to organise sometimes, were something she cherished. One of them would have a whole weekend to herself, saving the money for the babysitter, Jesse and Noah were more than happy to have loads of time to play together, and if they were lucky like tonight, the one who would be child-free wasn't called away for work so they could have some women's talk. Overall, Olivia found it quite remarkable how much Amanda's and her relationship had changed; she still remembered vividly how they hadn't gotten along that well when Amanda had just transferred to New York. But these times were long forgotten by now – similar experiences and mainly them both becoming single mothers had made them bond, forming a strong friendship outside work. It was one of the things in her life that she really didn't want to miss by now.

It didn't take as long as expected until she heard the door of Noah's room being closed gingerly, and she glanced up when her friend entered the living room.

"They fell asleep halfway into the first story," Amanda said with a triumphant smirk, sinking onto the couch and grabbing her wine glass in a swift movement. "I can't wait to get into bed and sleep with the knowledge that no one is going to wake me at six am."

"I can imagine."

Olivia chuckled knowingly and they clinked their glasses together before taking a sip, leaning back.

"So, it's Valentine's Day next week. You got anything planned?" Amanda asked, humour swinging in her voice, a wink crinkling the corner of her eye. With them being single mothers, their Valentine's Days usually consisted of coming home, cooking, doing their everyday stuff and falling into bed. Even before adopting Noah, Olivia hadn't thought that day to be particularly important, though she usually did something small if she happened to have a boyfriend.

"Sure. I'll be spending the evening with my Prince Charming and after a romantic candlelight dinner we'll go to bed and make love passionately all night long."

Sarcasm was dripping from her every word, causing Amanda to snort and retord bluntly: "Yeah, just what I've been planning. Only that for me that means that I'll be imagining it all and use the last bit to mastuarbate to."

"Happy Valentine's Day," Olivia said with a wide smirk, taking a large gulp of wine, glad that her sarcasm could mask that her words weren't as exaggerated as Amanda might think; in fact, she was hiding from her that she did have someone else than her son to spend Valentine's Day with. At least if that someone was into giving that particular day enough importance to consider a special evening for the two of them, especially since they had only started dating tentatively rather recently.

"Nah, I guess it won't be that sad. I have Jesse, and I bet Carisi will come over to make sure the kid gets its weekly dose of pasta."

Another sip of wine and Olivia could slowly feel the alcohol taking effect; raising her eyebrow, she looked at Amanda smugly over the rim of her wine glass. "Looks like someone's not going to need to masturbate. You probably know what everyone at the precinct is thinking about the two of you."

Amanda rolled her eyes, barely suppressing a glare. "Seriously, Liv? We're not sleeping with each other. It's like with you and Barba – everyone thinks you're doing it, but you're not."

Olivia almost choked on her wine, feeling caught, and wondered in slight panic if Rafael and her had accidentally slipped while at work, or if someone from the squad had seen them on one of their dates.

And her worry only grew as Amanda suddenly started smirking upon nothing her friend's reaction. "Oh, come on, Liv. We're Detectives, did you two really think we wouldn't notice? We just didn't comment on it because we wanted to give you guys some time to get used to the situation."

Still unable to believe it, Olivia downed the rest of her wine and proceeded to refill the glass immediately with an unreasonable amount of the red liquid. After another big gulp, she shook her head and grumbled: "I can't believe it. It's impossible to have secrets from you nosy little…"

"You gotta realise that we two have that kind of friendship now where I ask you to come to the loo with me to keep me company, if you want it or not, sweetie," Amanda said with a satisfied smirk, obviously more than amused by Olivia's grumpiness. "No secrets, we tell each other everything, so don't try to wriggle out of this. So, now that we got that settled, give me the details. How is it, how is he? I mean, we all know that you two have the chemistry, but how is it to date Barba?"

"Are you seriously thinking I'll give you details about us, Manda?"

Amanda shrugged, watching smugly how Olivia shifted a little on the couch and drank another bit of wine. "Well, there are things you want to share with people. I mean, everyone has the desire to talk about stuff at some point, and if you want to discuss something… well, I'm here. I'll listen."

"And tell Carisi and Fin everything I said. No thank you," Olivia replied dryly, shaking her head, though she couldn't hold back a smirk – these nosy chaotics were _her_ nosy chaotics. Her family, the people she could always rely on, even though they sometimes annoyed her a bit, like right now. "I'll have to get you sufficiently drunk before I can tell you anything because you'll have forgotten it by tomorrow morning. Wine?"

A little frown came over Amanda's face, but she still held her glass towards Olivia, her desire to hear everything about Olivia's love life stronger than the desire to share the new information with everyone who would listen. "Give me all the juicy, dirty details, Lieu."

"Amanda, have you realised that your comparison of Carisi and you to Rafael and me didn't work out at all?"

OoO

The next evening, Olivia and Rafael were in the kitchen, cooking dinner while Jesse and Noah were watching The Little Mermaid, cuddled together under a quilt on the couch and singing along to the songs with a confidence about the lyrics that made Olivia wonder just how many times the kids had seen the movie by now. Her gaze met Rafael's when the kids got louder with 'Under the sea', and the smirk on his face told her that he'd just asked himself the same question. Stepping closer to her, he wrapped one arm around her waist and pecked a kiss on her cheek before murmuring in amusement: "We gotta make sure this mermaid obsession doesn't get worse."

She laughed under her breath, leaning into his touch. "I think it's too late already."

They shared a short but sweet kiss and Rafael covered her hand with his, guiding her knife with a teasing expression. "You really should be more attentive when cutting vegetables for me. It's my reputation that's endangered when I use such badly chopped ingredients. My mother would scratch me from her will."

"You're such an a-... walnut, Rafael Felipe Barba," Olivia hissed back, catching herself before accidentally using a bad word. The kids were more than focused on their movie and on singing, but she didn't want to risk them hearing her. Rafael grinned, making her chuckle, and they kissed once again. "I promise to improve, chef Barba so your name won't be tarnished because of me."

She loved these moments in which they completely forgot about work, and they were just Olivia and Rafael, two people who were slowly moving their close friendship to something more. By now she knew that she loved him, and wasn't afraid to say it out loud, just like him, and she felt like she would never get tired of hearing or saying these three magical words that had changed their relationship, but not as much as they would have thought.

"That's what I wanted to hear," Rafael mumbled with a smirk, taking the moment to press his face against her temple for a moment, inhaling her scent. "When does Rollins pick Jesse up tomorrow? I guess I have to be gone before then."

Biting her bottom lip, Olivia put the knife down and turned to him; she hadn't had the time yet to tell him that hiding wasn't necessary anymore, and while she would have preferred to have a quiet moment to inform him about that, she knew that she didn't have a choice now. He would survive. He'd of course noticed her expression, raising an eyebrow, and Olivia took a deep breath before confessing: "Rafa… the squad knows about us."

His green eyes widened in shock and his jaw dropped; he looked so hilarious in this moment that Olivia couldn't prevent a laugh from bubbling out of her – she didn't think that this was a serious issue.

"What? How? Since when?"

"Rafi, they're Detectives. Amanda said they knew from the start. Maybe even before we decided to give it a shot."

For a moment, he looked seriously grumpy, almost pouty, making it hard for her to not start laughing again. She just found his reaction incredibly adorable, and she imagined a young Rafael reacting like this the first time he was beaten in the courtroom. "Seriously?"

"Yup. Though considering they've known all along, it's quite astonishing that they managed to keep themselves from commenting," Olivia said, wrapping her arms around his neck. "Stop pouting, Rafa. We would have told them sometime, anyway."

"Yeah, just… would have been nice to do it in our pace."

"Rafi, that's life. It never goes according to plan. Now, I'm not an expert, but I think your sauce is close to burning."

With a yelp, Rafael stepped over to the stove and hurried to stir in the pot there, turning the heat down. "I'm still not happy. It's our private life."

Sighing, she ran a hand up his back soothingly before turning back to the vegetables she was supposed to be chopping. "See the positive side: we don't have to be extra cautious anymore. It'll be so much more relaxing."

He reluctantly grumbled something about still not being okay with this, but when Noah yelled from the living room that his favourite song of the movie was about to start, Rafael's grumpiness seemed to vanish immediately – a moment later he was singing along together with the kids, a carefree expression on his face. Olivia was quite sure that he would get over the fact that their relationship hadn't been a secret at all. Maybe he would glare at Carisi and maybe Rollins, too, for some time, but eventually he would come to terms with it.

Though there was one question that was still on her mind from time to time, in the moments when she had a few minutes to spare for breathing through because Rafael had taken over chasing after the kids.

What did he think about Valentine's Day? And what did she herself think about it? Did she want Valentine's Day to be something special for them, or couldn't she care less if they did something or not?

"Liv, we need you to sing the last bit!"

Rafael's voice ripped her from her thoughts and she laughed, shaking her head in protest while the questions faded from her mind.

OoO

Hours later, when they'd put Jesse and Noah to bed – or rather, carried them from the couch, where they'd fallen asleep during The Emperor's New Groove, to Noah's room – Olivia had time to think about it again, though. Rafael was making them drinks, and while she watched him, she told herself that Valentine's Day seriously didn't matter. Every single day or evening spent with him together was special on its own already, and she didn't think that it could get any better on a hyped, commercialised holiday.

"Mi amor, your wine," Rafael said gently, handing her the full glass before sitting down next to her on the couch, their thighs touching, and she leaned into his side, her whole body relaxing from his warmth. She'd rarely ever felt this content in her life.

"Thank you, Rafa. Just what I needed."

She took a sip before placing the glass on the coffee table, deciding to bluntly ask him about Valentine's Day so she wouldn't be annoyed by her own thoughts anymore. There were more important things to pay attention to.

"What is your opinion about Valentine's Day?"

"Why?" he asked back carefully, raising an eyebrow, and she shrugged.

"I just wanted to know what you think about it, if you want to do something special that evening."

He shook his head after looking at her for a long moment, as if he was trying to find out if he was potentially stepping on thin ice.

"It's a day like any other to me, and also a weekday this year, so I can hardly take Noah and you out when he has to be in school the next morning and we two have to be at work. Also it's mainly used to make profit," he ultimately replied, and Olivia was glad that he was giving her his honest opinion, like she always expected him to, instead of trying to be sensitive.

"Good. I feel the same about it. Amanda just got this kind of thinking rolling in my head and I just needed an answer that would stop it again."

"Valentine's Day's only good side is that on the 15th, all the chocolate in the special packages is reduced drastically. Rita, Fia and I always go to work later to be able to buy as much as possible for us. Of course Fia uses the opportunity to deliver some to Mamí and tease her. Fia just loves to piss her off."

Olivia chuckled at the image forming in her head, featuring Rafael's younger cousin and his mother, Lucia Barba almost losing her mind about a stack of chocolates in heart-shaped packages and yelling that Fia was supposed to receive those. "Rafi, these two… your family is just hilarious, am I allowed to say that?"

He blushed lightly, but still he smirked. "Now you find it funny. After a few years you just feel like they'll drive you crazy one day."

"I like your mother, and Fia and Rita," she whispered almost sheepishly, fingers playing with the collar of his shirt as a heavy feeling spread in her stomach. "It's a better family than… than mine."

Rafael wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into his chest, kissing her temple. "They're your family now, too, Liv. Even if you'll regret that once my mother starts harassing us about getting married and having more children."

Laughter bubbled out of her, and it was as if the cloud that had momentarily darkened her mood was pushed away immediately. He smiled at her when she tilted her head to glance up and kiss him. "I'm looking forward to it."

"You're crazy," Rafael snorted, but his green eyes were twinkling with hope and affection. "I'll bring you some boxes of your favourite chocolates for your bravery to associate yourself with this family. And as a thank you for not running away after the first dinner we had with Fia and Mamí. Mamí had a really bad day."

"I'm looking forward to the chocolates. And I don't know, it was quite amusing how she tried to get the waiter to marry Fia off the spot just because he kept making sure her wine glass was always filled."

"That man heard the way Mamí talked to her and pitied her so he provided alcohol to ease the pain. But Fia really was provoking her."

They chuckled together at the memory, lost in it together for a moment, then Olivia shifted so her legs came to rest on Rafael's lap. "Good, then no kitschy cards, big bouquets and dinners in a booked-out restaurant. A pity, if it wasn't for the chocolate."

Rafael ran his fingers up her calf slowly and circled her knee teasingly, murmuring: "Believe me, mi amor, the chocolate makes up for the great annoyance this day is."

She watched his fingers with a smirk, pushing into his gentle touch as he made his way up her thigh. "Well, Rafa, I know something else that'll make up for having to witness all the exaggerated expressions of love. A nice activity. Just for the two of us."

"Hm… I have no idea what that might be," Rafael said innocently, placing soft kisses on her throat and jaw while his hand inched up higher, teasing her inner thigh before slowly undoing the button and zipper of her jeans. "Maybe we should practice, so I'll know what to do."

Olivia's breath quickened, but still she found herself smirking at him mischievously. "Well, Counselor, that _does_ sound like a reasonable suggestion. We gotta practice some to make sure that we're good at it and our Valentine's Day won't go badly."

"My thoughts exactly. Will you be my not-Valentine, Olivia Benson?"

His fingers sneaked into her underwear, and Olivia pulled him closer for a hot kiss, gasping against his lips: "Yes… yes."

Their lips collided again, muffling any sounds, and they both found themselves looking forward to just another ordinary day of being together.

THE END


End file.
